HAM Report Three From the 2017 IWA Show.

Above. Is Gamo getting into the Big Bore airgun market with the new Swarm Maxxim? Make that REALLY, REALLY, REALLY Big Bore? Stay tuned to HAM’s live reports on all the big airgun news at the 2017 IWA Show.

Big Bore Swarm Maxxim or not, Gamo is certainly venturing more into the “lifestyle” aspect of air gunning with their range of Hunter Attitude clothing. And it’s obviously a popular more here at the show.

With around 45,000 visitors (a few of them arriving above), a huge number of booths and lots of focus on airguns, there’s always something new to be found at IWA!

One such discovery for me at the 2017 IWA Show was the Taiwanese OEM manufacturing company Listone Industry Co. Sylvia from Listone Industry showed me a new PCP target rifle that they were introducing at the 2017 IWA Show, the TaiChi X (below).

The TaiChi X is a very light, compact PCP air rifle that’s intended for you competitive shooters. It’s also available in an air pistol version called the TaiChi (no X).

As you can see, the TaiChi samples were built to Taiwan’s incredibly-restrictive legal limits for airguns. In Taiwan, it seems, airguns can only produce a maximum 2 Joules of Muzzle Energy. That’s just 1.475 Ft/Lbs. Or approximately 275 FPS with a 7.9 grain pellet in .177 caliber. Yes, it’s true!

Listone Industry also produces a range of chronographs that are suitable for airgun use. The one that caught my eye was the Pocket Chronograph L1000. This tiny device is battery-operated and can be mounted on a photographic tripod for stability. It has a digital readout of muzzle velocity and data can be downloaded to a PC using the USB port.

Will this little Chronograph make it to the US market? The manufacturer hopes so…

A more familiar company at the 2017 IWA Show was, of course, Air Arms. Here, Chris Kemp shows off the Galahad FAC (high power) model in .22 caliber in the lovely Walnut stock.

Chris tells me that demand for regulated and un-regulated versions of the Galahad is about equal. So Air Arms strategy of producing both versions of the Galahad appears to be paying off.

Meanwhile, Sheila Cooper of Air Arms was obviously delighted to show us the beautiful RSN 70 special edition model. I believe that just 20 will be available in the US market through Pyramid Air.

GSG – German Sporting Guns – the owners of SIG SAUER, Diana and several other airgun brands has a large booth at the 2017 IWA Show…

Here I met Markus Gluck from Diana, who showed me several new models. These included the Blaser AR8 in laminated wood. Blaser is a strong brand for GSG in Europe, although it’s unknown to most of us air gunners in the USA.

Markus also showed me the new range of CO2-powered air pistols that Diana will be selling very soon. These are 1911-style, blowback pistols. There’s a Diana 1911 Target model, a 1911 Desert Model and the one shown below, the Diana 1911 US. This is in the popular “worn” finish that looks just like heavily-used ex-GI condition.

One notable feature of the 2017 IWA Show is the increasing number of firearms manufacturers moving into the airguns business with new models. These companies are mainly Turkish and Eastern European shotgun manufacturers and they are introducing a number of innovative PCP air rifles.

We’ll check out some of these new Eastern European PCPs in HAM’s next report from the 2017 IWA Show, tomorrow.